Features
Who owns the heritage of traditional medicine?
The Wellcome Collection examines the history of ‘alternative’ medicine in the Indian subcontinent
Charles Lang Freer’s gift to the American people
The Freer Gallery of Art has reopened its doors after a major refurbishment – and its founder deserves to be better known
Cézanne’s radical portraiture
The painter’s approach to portraiture seems even more refreshing in the era of selfies
How Tove Jansson reimagined Wonderland
The creator of the Moomins thought deeply about friendship in her Alice illustrations
Digging down into mining art in County Durham
A new art gallery in Bishop Auckland celebrates the mining art of northern England
Acquisitions of the month: September 2017
The Chrysler Museum celebrated its biggest gift in decades last month, while the Met acquired an extremely unusual coffin
The best of the Frieze week satellite events
From the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, to artists’ films at the BFI London Film Festival, there’s plenty to see outside of Regent’s Park
Wrestling with ancient Rome
Plus: Jack Whitten, Lisson Gallery’s 50th birthday, and Willem de Kooning’s late paintings
The weird world of Alfred Kubin
Plus: Giorgio de Chirico’s writings, Enrico David’s sculptures, and reflections on W.G. Sebald
Mashed-up encyclopaedias and dismantled watches
Plus: exhibitions of William Turnbull, Gino De Dominicis, and Tim Head
Sinister statues and shadowy portraits
Plus: Brice Marden’s painstaking exploration of paint and an Italian protégé of Duchamp makes his debut in London
The Cerruti Collection – from closed volume to open book
The private collection of Francesco Federico Cerruti will prove a revelation when it goes on show in Turin
Fallen women and philanthropic reformers
Charitable efforts to end prostitution in 18th-century London took many forms, and left behind some remarkable objects
How to look at Mexican Old Masters
The painters of New Spain have been misunderstood for centuries, but their work seems to be entering the mainstream at last
The exhibitions not to miss in Istanbul
With the Istanbul Biennial comes a host of exciting satellite exhibitions around the city
John Ashbery: poet and artist
He’ll be remembered as a wordsmith, but Ashbery was also a brilliant art critic, collector, and artist with a gift for seeing
Dinosaurs, dioramas, and the strange world of natural history
Paleoart and dioramas are designed to depict prehistory and the natural world – but what they really reveal are our own hopes and fears
Acquisitions of the month: August 2017
This month’s acquisitions include a major collection of African art, a treasure from Queen Victoria’s personal collection, and a beautiful 18th-century landscape
Sir David Tang (1954–2017)
Tang was well known as an entrepreneur, a socialite, and a columnist; he was also a leading art collector and patron of the arts
The contemporary vision of Collezione Maramotti
In the decade since it opened, the collection has emerged as a frontrunner among Italy’s contemporary cultural foundations
The many lives of André Malraux
Collector, dealer, novelist, art historian, culture minister, conservationist – André Malraux’s influence still looms large
Riding the wave: Plymouth’s burgeoning art scene
The city’s cultural ambitions are growing in the run-up to the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage
A potted history of studio ceramics
Studio potters continue to push the boundaries of their medium in Britain
Narrating the past, collecting for the future
For Inti Ligabue collecting tribal and oceanic art is a way of telling stories about the cultures the objects come from
What happens when an artist wants to be anonymous?